Ian Fleming

A magnificent work of empathy and detection

Colin Thubron, Sunday Times, on Bruce Chatwin

A fascinating account of the man behind the myth

Ian Thomson, Guardian on Bruce Chatwin

An epic piece of work of immense satisfaction... Awe-inspiring

The Times, on Bruce Chatwin

Quite simply, one of the most beautifully written, painstakingly researched and cleverly constructed biographies of this decade

Literary Review, on Bruce Chatwin

Comprehensively researched, elegantly written, perfectly balanced between the life, the books and the ideas

Independent on Sunday on Bruce Chatwin

This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time

Antonia Fraser

Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens

Adam Sisman

Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.

Telegraph

This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.

Philip Hensher, Spectator

A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.

Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Elegant and painstakingly researched

Observer

A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.

Robert McCrum, Independent

The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable

New Statesman

Fascinating, well researched, neatly written

D.J. Taylor, Literary Review

A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.

Financial Times

A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful

Entertainment Focus

A revealing insight into postwar, post-Empire Britain...A terrific read

Michael Wood, BBC History Magazine

Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in his biography of a man as enigmatic as his creation

Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*

A fascinating book

Round & About

A must-read

Evening Standard

A fascinating work

Scotsman, *Books of the Year*

Magisterial.... Shakespeare knows Fleming’s world intimately and the intricate portrait of this complex individual is unsurpassable.

William Boyd, Daily Express, Books of the Year